8. Avicenna

Canon Medicine, Moredechai bar Elia, 1463

ca. 980-1037

One of the most influential of all Islamic scientists, Avicenna, like many of his peers, worked on many aspects of science including medicine, maths, logic, and geology to name but a few. He wrote almost 450 texts on a wide variety of subjects, his two most famous being The Canon of Medicine and The Book of Healing. These were used as standard university textbooks across Europe for hundreds of years. However, his influence extended farther, as he is also considered responsible for the introduction of quarantine to avoid spreading infections, as well as introducing clinical trials and systematic experimentation.